Water is a precious thing in the desert. Without it no life is possible. When rains come plants spring into vigorous growth. During the long stretches without rain they rest, some as seed, while some plants store water in root systems, or in large trunks. Animals have developed a number of ways of surviving long dry spells in arid country.
Among mammals the kangaroo rat of our Southwestern desert seems able to get along without water. This is caused by an arrangement within the body whereby the necessary water is manufactured within the animal from other foodstuffs: metabolic water.
The accessibility of drinking water in a desert may be the determining factor in whether or not some birds can survive there. The nests of Gambel's quail must be close enough to drinking water for the newly hatched young to walk there, else they perish of thirst. It has been said that newly hatched chicks of the related valley quail of California cannot travel more than a few hundred yards from their hatching places without water. Broods hatched farther away are doomed to die.
Sand grouse, relatives of the pigeons that have adopted the general appearance and habits of quail, live in the Old World, primarily in arid or even desert areas. Where they occur their daily traveling to water is a well-marked phenomenon. Their flight is swift and powerful, and though they may traverse long distances of barren, inhospitable country to watering places, their punctuality in arriving at water, morning and evening in some species, is remarkable.
But what of the young of these desert dwellers that need water? A most unusual situation exists; indeed it seems to be unique. The old birds bring water to the young! This has long been recorded, but as recently as 1921 it has been questioned. However, Mr. Meade-Waldo's observations on birds in captivity seem to definitely establish the custom, and its methods.
PARENTS CARRY WATER Both birds incubate the eggs, the male by night, the female by day, and both parents care for the young. But it is the male only that brings water to the young. He rubs his breast violently up and down on the ground, and then, his feathers awry, he gets into his drinking water and saturates the feathers of his under parts. Then, in captivity, he would run to the hen, make a demonstration, whereupon the young would run out from under her, get under him, and suck the water from his feathers. This they did by passing the feathers through their bills, continuing and changing about until the supply was exhausted. It was found that until the young can fly they take water in no other way.
This was in captivity. Presumably in the wild the process is the same, the adult flying with wet under parts from the water hole to the resting place where the young are under the care of the female.
The similarity of the young sucking water from the feathers to young mammals suckling their mother has been pointed out. But another and a truer similarity exists: that of the young sand grouse getting water from the feathers, and young quail getting water from dew-wet leaves in areas where dew is heavy and there is but little surface water.
BIRD GRAVEYARDS [Ref]
